Beating Middlebury is no longer a mystery: Amherst men's lacrosse advances to national field of eight, UMass women bow out

The UMass women's lacrosse season ended at 17-3 with NCAA tournament loss at Loyola.
photo by J. Anthony Roberts

“If you’re not a Jeff, you’re wrong!”

That’s the 2011 theme, and the holler from the winning post-game huddle of the Amherst College men’s lacrosse team – the slogan developed by assistant coach Evan Crosby.

And everything was quite right Saturday at Gooding Field in Amherst as the Lord Jeffs knocked off rival Middlebury College 12-9 to advance to the third and quarterfinal round of the NCAA Division III men’s lacrosse championship
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Until this year, Amherst had lost 25 straight times to Middlebury with the last win coming in 1989. But the Lord Jeffs stunned Middlebury with a 9-7 come-from-behind upset during the regular season, and doubled the delight with Saturday’s triumph.

“To beat them two times in a season is something I never thought would happen,” said Amherst junior goaltender Sam Jakimo, who was spectacular in making 25 saves.

At Baltimore, the UMass women’s lacrosse team did not fare as well, falling to No. 5 Loyola 14-7 in the opening round of the NCAA Division I tournament. Loyola used a four-goal run in the second half to pull away. Meg Decker scored a season-high five goals for the winners, and Haley Smith scored twice for UMass. The Minutewomen finished their season at 17-3, the second most wins in program history.

At Springfield, the Western New England College women’s lacrosse team bested Curry College 14-10 to capture the ECAC Division III New England Championship Saturday afternoon. Senior attack Jeanmarie Barbato scored six goals and added an assist as the top-seeded Golden Bears wrapped up their season at 17-5.

Amherst head coach Jon Thompson said after the game that he believed his team could beat anybody in the nation, and Wednesday the Lord Jeffs will get a chance to prove it. They will be taking on the undefeated Rochester Institute of Technology (18-0), which had a tougher time than expected Saturday in just squeaking past Denison 13-12 in overtime. The quarterfinal game Wednesday is likely to be played at RIT.

The Panthers outshot Amherst 59-39, and had the advantage in groundballs at 40-28, but Jakimo was terrific
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Thompson said that while Jakimo didn’t win all-NESCAC honors this year, he should have
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“Sam Jakimo is an all-league and All America goaltender,” Thompson said. “He is one of the best goaltender in the country. He stole five or six goals today, if you steal two or three, that’s a good day.”

Devin Acton and Cole Cherney each scored three goals for Amherst while Evan Redwood and Alex Fox had two apiece.

Middlebury had already scored the first two goals, and the Lord Jeffs could have easily been frustrated when Fox, with three Panther defenders hacking away at him on the left side, looped a perfect pass to Acton in front. But Acton’s shot hit directly off the post with 6:09 remaining in the first quarter. But instead of sulking, Acton, who was playing with an injured right finger, came right back and scored 11 seconds later to get the Lord Jeffs on the board before they fell too far behind. Redwood then scored with 3:35 to play, and Cherney put in the go-ahead marker with 53.5 seconds left to give Amherst a 3-2 lead at the end of the period.

The Panthers tied it up with an early second-quarter goal, but Lord Jeff senior defender Parker Holcomb of Dallas, Texas – not exactly lacrosse country - got the goal back 10 seconds later. Acton then scored twice in a span of 1:23 to make it 6-3.

"Devon is a freshman by year,” Thompson said. “But as far as his ability and leadership, the guys look up to him, and he might was well be a senior.”

Middlebury was down only 8-6, and pressing right before the half when Holcomb made a key interception in the last minute
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The Lord Jeffs opened the second half with three straight goals to break out to an 11-6 lead.

"When we broke the barrier of 11 goals, that was the key,” Jakimo said. “I can’t remember when we’ve lost when hitting that 11 mark.”

For UMass, it had to be frustrating to hold Loyola super scorer Grace Gavin without a goal and still lose. Gavin had gone 59 straight games scoring at least one goal.

“It did open other people up,” acknowledged UMass coach Angela McMahon of the tight defense on Gavin. “But also we turned the ball over way too much (18 turnovers) to beat a team like Loyola, and we missed too many shots. We fought hard, but they had too much in the end.”

UMass cut the lead down to 6-4 on a goal by Katie Ferris 4:28 into the second half, and the Minutewomen held Loyola scoreless for the first 10:51 of the period. But after a UMass turnover, Decker scored on transition to spark the four-goal Loyola run.

McMahon said that while the loss was disappointing, she told the players to put the focus on the progress it made from the start of the season.

“I think back to the overtime game with Holy Cross in the first game of the season, and the progression we made from that point to now is amazing,” McMahon said. “And while we graduate three impact players, to have so many players coming back with having this (NCAA tournament) experience will be helpful.”

In the Western New England win, freshman midfielder Shelby Trebbe of Wilbraham had two goals and two assists.